2023/03/22: An Underdark Meeting Report
General Summary
Knight, Senal, Eldrin, Locke, Union, Zaran, Allen, Nailmaster Mato Knight needed a retinue to go to the meeting. He called in various friendly adventurers who were available and interested. Locke didn't get an invitation, so he came along as retinue to represent the Silence. Mato came along as well, to get a bit more refinement and Renedge field experience. The party teleported back to Shadowcove. It was better lit this time. It's a tall, dark cavern sort of shaped like an orange slice. One flat side, rounded on the rest. The party arrived on the curved side. The light is coming from giant floating blue and purple hazy lights that are flickering a bit. Like a reflection of string lights on water. There were a few other tunnels coming into the area. Along the rounded side, there were a bunch of ominous black statues some two hundred feet tall. Some parts looked unfinished, others seemed highly detailed. Like petrified titans. A new meeting building had been made. There was also a stony Underdark inn about three stories tall set to the side. It looked like it might be able to house larger creatures. On one end of the cavern, there was a giant cave/tunnel that just screamed dungeon entrance. On the straight side of the orange slice, there was a vast stygian ocean reaching into the darkness. The ceiling above it was relatively low. Suddenly, a wave of shadow passed over the party, and the party found themselves confronted by a group of shadow monsters of equal number. Each was a nightmarish reflection of its opponent. For Knight, a 10-foot-tall humanoid wasplike being with an almost liquid carapace, wings, six eyes, and six arms wielding long curved blades. For Zaran, a giant, impressive-looking demon dragon, about 300 feet long, with red/black/purple scales. For Locke, a freakish four-armed goat thing. For Allen, a man in a black robe, with no visible face. For Senal, an oversized, impressive-looking death knight with a giant two-handed sword. For Eldrin, a 12-foot-tall grim reaper. For Union, a generic "video game protagonist" wielding a purple energy blade. And for Mato, a silhouette of a beetle person wielding a long nail and a parrying dagger. As always, Knight went first, but his opponent matched him in speed. Knight set for the incoming charge, activating Time Stands Still and the Kote of Striking. His parries reduced the swings to a shallow slash across his shoulder. His riposte cut his opponent in twain. The monster lashed out with a last fiery gaze attack, but Knight just managed to dodge the brunt of it, only catching on fire for a few seconds. Zaran, seeing his draconic opponent, pulled out an item he never thought he'd have an opportunity to use: a necklace called the Chain of the Dragon. Once per year, it could allow him to command a dragon. He ordered the demon dragon to stay out of the fight. The shade, whose entire purpose of existence was to fight this battle, disintegrated in a puff of broken logic. Locke and his counterpart both elected for a less confrontational route. Locke cast a withdraw and some buff spells (protection from evil, death ward, camouflage), then hid in the darkness at the ceiling. His opponent folded reality over himself and disappeared. Allen put up a ward, a protective circle that combined protection from evil with wall of force. This defense was promptly tested by a strange purplish fireball from his opponent that exploded continuously against the ward. The shield was defeated, but the fireball didn't have enough energy left to reach Allen himself. Senal and her dark knight counterpart whacked each other inconclusively. Eldrin mixed a disintegrate with the Eldrin's Omnibeam already in his staff and launched it at the grim reaper before him. It manifested as clawing bands of energy, sawing away at the reaper's body. The reaper was injured but held firm, returning a barrage of blows with an extending scythe. Fortune was on Eldrin's side, and a couple of the attacks missed despite the reaper's manifest inevitability. It was just enough to keep Eldrin from being completely torn apart. Union manifested greater concealing amorpha, trying to defend himself against the death psion opposing him. The death psion went on the offensive with his sword, but the protection did its job; only a few slashes managed to connect. Mato went back and forth with his counterpart, but the battle was gradually turning in favor of his opponent, with a few scratches and slashes getting through. Knight, seeing Eldrin flagging, dashed over to smash the reaper opposing him. He tore into it with a vengeance, but it served as little more than a distraction; the monster was resilient, and stayed standing. Zaran stepped in to handle the severe damage some party members had taken so far. He cast his single mass heal of the day, returning everyone to full capacity. Locke cast withdraw again and went searching for whoever was responsible for the appearance of these monsters. He suspected that this wasn't just a random event or a passive effect. The subjective minute or so he spent searching the cavern, however, proved fruitless. Meanwhile, the goat monster tossed a terrible stinking cloud at the party that not only severely triggered a gag reflex, but actively ate away at anyone in its radius. Zaran found himself fully occupied throwing up, and even Knight found himself feeling ill despite his only vaguely biological construction. Senal magically detached her own head to avoid having to experience it. Allen, still in his magical duel, cast volley, a one-shot spellturning effect that would return an incoming spell to its caster. It was well that he did; his opponent ended up getting a facefull of his own firebeam. Senal and the dark knight continued their faceoff. This time, Senal adjusted her technique to penetrate the knight's hardened shell, and her smiting blows took her opponent apart. The few blows she received in return were barely noticeable in comparison. The battle continued for a bit. Eldrin chewed the reaper in half with a fire missile minigun (and made a lot of scorch marks on the far wall). Union got in a lightsaber knife fight with the death psion. Union nearly died to the stinking cloud, but was healed by Zaran. Senal and Knight eviscerated the goat thing. Allen killed his counterpart with backup from Zaran. Mato ended up winning his duel, with some buffing support from Knight and Senal speeding up the victory at the end. As the fight was going on, Locke switched to Silence form to better scan the area, and he found that he area was harder to perceive than normal. Everything here seemed shadowy and hazy. The party regrouped and prepared to continue. In the distance, they saw a group of drow arriving and being attacked in a similar manner. Our heroes deigned not to intervene (and some of them quietly cheered the magical attackers on). As they arrived at the meeting hall, they did notice the arrival of another, unfamiliar party, a seven-foot-tall, fairly scary-looking lich in a shroud of darkness and smoke. The lich didn't even slow down when confronted by its opponent; the nemesis was barely seen before the lich waved his hand and uttered a few words, and the magical construct was blown into nothing. The party decided not to wait outside to see if he was friendly. The Queen of Curses awaited arrivals inside. She took Knight aside for a quick word. She told him that there had been a few additions to the guest list; one was the lich, while the others were representatives of the beholder nation north of Darkhome. The latter group hadn't been invited to the previous meeting because they were expected to cause problems. In Shadowcove, though, making trouble wouldn't go well for them. She also reminded him that use of magic, psionics, or really anything more than verbal speech would not be tolerated in this meeting, a policy he passed on to his retinue. In return, he gave her the map that would be used as the centerpiece for the diplomatic table. Inside the meeting room were a wide variety of Underdark denizens, from mind flayers to beholders, duergar to drow. The only group that didn't have a full adventuring party-worth of guards and attendants was the Fire Pool Alliance, which now had two representatives instead of just the flamboyant Veragna. The additional representative was dressed much more conservatively, wearing a suit of reddish armor. Zaran could confirm with just a sniff that both of them were likely dragons or similar. And with the last few groups present, the meeting could begin. Meeting notes: Lots of grandstanding, complaining, and insults. Lots of time wasted on it. (Senal got to join in with a bit of racial tension with the drow.) Notable:
Rewards Granted
5 xp for Union and Allen (and probably Mato), 2 for everyone else
Character(s) interacted with
Averigor, Inkanzor the Archlich, the Queen of Curses, Veragna
